


led by moonlight

by AnarchyAngel



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cussing, Drabble, First Meetings, M/M, Magic, Making Out, Naruto is a sage, Oneshot, Sasuke is a witch, Slice of Life, Soulmate Shenanigans, Sun and Moon Symbolism, cursing, no real plot, rated T because Naruto drops the f-bomb like half a dozen times..., this was supposed to be for halloween...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27681796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnarchyAngel/pseuds/AnarchyAngel
Summary: "This really is the best dream I’ve ever had,” Naruto whispers into the space between them as they both rush to catch their breaths, drowning in midnight eyes he can’t stop staring into.“I—what?”Sasuke’s voice is rough and husky. Naruto can’t remember loving a voice so much before.“You think this is a dream?” Sasuke hisses at him, the fingers that were twined around his hair clenching as he yanks Naruto’s head up from where he had dipped down to nip at Sasuke’s jaw.The confusion in those dark eyes clears some of the fog from his mind, and uncertainty sweeps through him so quickly it leaves him almost as breathless as their kiss had.“Wait…this isn’t a dream?”Shit.or, alternatively, the present tense experiment that went way too far >.>
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 15
Kudos: 114





	led by moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> So this was actually just a scene I was writing to try out present tense but I kinda dig the way it came out? Idk, head empty, just sns >.<
> 
> Thanks as always to [spadebrigade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spadebrigade/pseuds/spadebrigade) for beta-ing my inanity
> 
>  **UPDATE!: ART!!! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️**  
>  I can't thank Cricket enough for this amazing piece 😭 witchy Sasuke was everything I needed in my life

The night is still.

The air is chilled.

The moon is high.

It’s the perfect night for a witch to cast his spells.

…

Except he ran out of cinnabar.

“Shit.” Sasuke mutters as he futilely rummages through all of his drawers, ignoring the mess that he knows will bother him later.

How could he have forgotten to buy more cinnabar!? He remembers writing it down, leaving for the nearest apothecary…and then he remembers bright blue eyes, an effervescent smile, and a brilliant blond head of messy hair.

 _“Shit.”_ He repeats, because well… _shit._ A sage has _no right_ being that attractive. And—if you really think about it—it’s the fucking blonde’s fault Sasuke had left without getting what he had written down in the first place!

Sages are supposed to be _old, crotchety,_ and…well, _not stupidly attractive._ Moreover, most sages are hacks and usually wind up with disfigurements caused by the very path they walk! He’d seen more than his share of gross old men and women with an extra fang or horn. So why the hell had the blond— _Naruto,_ his name pops into Sasuke’s head like a purr, soft and subtle and _annoyingly_ satisfying—been so… _perfect._ Lightly tanned skin, big, dazzling smile, and insanely well-defined muscles that had been on full display when the sage reached up to a grab something from a higher shelf, his simple black shirt riding up and revealing abs Sasuke wanted to lick—

 _“Fuck!”_ Because _shit_ just doesn’t cut it anymore. Not if he was imagining those toned thighs wrapped around his waist or those plump lips around his— _oh I am so fucked._

He can never go back to that apothecary. A shame, because that is the closest to him that carries high quality wares.

Sasuke sighs and grabs his scrolls, anything to keep his hands and mind busy. If he thinks about those gorgeous azure eyes anymore, he’ll vomit from his own ridiculousness.

Blood will work as a medium in lieu of cinnabar—although the strength of the spell will be multiplied to the _n_ th degree; the calculations distract him as he sketches out the arrays.

He draws the blade across his finger, the scarlet droplet welling up and gliding along the edge, and flicks it onto the center of the array. The spark of power never ceases to amaze him—the spell lifts and takes shape, shifting and swirling around him, dancing with the moonlight, twining into strands of his hair, along his cheeks. He wonders what Naruto would look like, bathed in magic and moonlight both, absurdly beautiful tanned skin on full display for him.

He groans and channels his annoyingly heated thoughts towards the spell, but his focus has already altered the casting—the vivid blue of his array shifts to purple and Sasuke realizes how much he has fucked up when the energy begins to burn into his left palm.

There’s this _witch._

He’s beautiful, like most witches, but it’s more than that—he’s just insanely… _perfect._

Naruto had caught a glimpse once, when he’d been out looking for his perverted master after the old sage had stolen his wallet and run off to the nearest brothel.

The witch had been standing atop the bridge Naruto had wandered under, trying to avoid the light rain from seeping into his robes.

And he’d just…he’d frozen. Stopped completely in his tracks. He’d watched, mesmerized as the witch cast a simple spell to ward off the rain. A quick flick of his wrist, a casual wave of his hand and then the ward took life, grew into a semi-transparent image of a hawk. It took flight, wings wrapping around the witch as it soared above his head, whisking away the raindrops as it went.

It hadn’t been the magic that had stopped Naruto in his tracks. After all, he’s a sage who can harness the very energy of the world around him—magic is by no means new to him.

It had been the tiniest, almost imperceptible smirk that had transformed that already gorgeous face into one of ethereal beauty. The witch’s smile enthralled him more soundly than any spell ever could.

Which is how he found himself _searching._

Not _stalking—_ he’s not a creep! But…in every crowd, he’d find his eyes wandering, his gaze searching for a head of raven hair, for ink-black eyes and pale-jade skin.

And he found him— _Sasuke,_ his name whispers through Naruto’s mind, as light and sleek as its owner—reaching for cinnabar in the apothecary Naruto visits most often. He’d been even more stupidly beautiful up close; it had practically knocked the breath from his lungs.

There was just one problem: the witch was kind of an asshole.

Naruto sighs as he remembers smiling broadly at Sasuke, which was met by an impassive quirk of a pretty midnight brow. The witch had then all but run out of the apothecary—shutting down every single last one of Naruto’s attempts to get to know the jackass whose face had been all he’d been able to think about lately.

He groans and flops onto his back, his ass exceedingly sore from the rock he’s been planted on for the past hour, failing to gather nature energy within himself because of his erratic thoughts.

“He could have at least agreed to grab some coffee with me…” He mutters as he rolls to his feet and stretches towards the moon.

It’s full and bright—beautiful.

It reminds him of Sasuke’s entirely lickable pale skin.

He groans again.

He can get over this—he can’t obsess over a guy he doesn’t even know forever…can he? Horror fills his veins at the thought of pining for some jackass for the rest of eternity because he can’t get over just how pretty he is.

Except it isn’t Sasuke’s pretty face Naruto can’t stop thinking about—okay well not _entirely!_ For fuck’s sake, he’s human (mostly), there’s nothing wrong with finding someone attractive!

But aside from Sasuke’s overall absurd level of beauty is his stupid smirk—that tiny little smile that had transformed him from cold and brooding to… _moonlight._ Like moonlight, he’d just…Sasuke had outshined everything around him—as if the rest of the world was a shade or two darker, like it could never compare.

_Ugh._

He really is going to spend eternity obsessed with some jackass he barely knows, isn’t he?

He clears his mind, or tries to— _again_ (he thought he had cleared it earlier but…obviously not)—and focuses on breathing. He can feel nature around him, its energy swirling and gathering within him. The soft blue energy takes form—visible to the naked eye under the full moon’s light.

His senses heighten, his view broadening—he feels the telltale orange marks darkening his eyelids and can’t help but grin, the feeling of being filled to the brim with nature energy always delights him.

When he opens his eyes, everything seems brighter, louder, more vivid. The spike of energy distracts him for a moment, and by the time he realizes something is amiss, it’s too late.

The soft blue light of visible natural energy shifts to a striking orange and coalesces along his right hand, swirling and dancing beneath his fingertips.

It’s so beautiful that it takes a moment for Naruto to realize that it’s burning into him— _marking_ him _._

The pain is there and gone in an instant, so fast that he can almost convince himself that he imagined it, except there’s a perfect circle left behind on his palm.

He doesn’t even have time to freak out over the mark when he feels a spike of energy not far from him, deeper into the woods. As if his night can’t get any weirder, he finds himself following the pull and rushing past the trees.

The moon brightens his path, starlight playing through the eaves, drifting and dancing along a breeze that makes the leaves sing.

He’s almost not surprised when he enters into a meadow and sees raven hair and pale skin, dark eyes and soft lips—he’s half certain he fell asleep on the rock and all this is just a dream his lust-riddled and stupidly pining mind has conjured.

 _“Shit.”_ Sasuke’s voice should have rang through the quiet night and disrupted the soft intimacy, but instead it wraps around them, encircles them to the point that Naruto wonders if it’s even possible to stop his feet from gliding forward, pushed and pulled along with the ebb and flow of energy swirling between them.

He finds that he doesn’t mind being pushed and pulled towards Sasuke.

It’s a dream, so he might as well indulge.

Sasuke is so close—Naruto can’t help but edge closer, erase what little space that separates them by snaking his arm around Sasuke’s waist, surprisingly slim beneath his fingertips.

“Wha—”

Sasuke’s dark eyes are so pretty, Naruto feels like he could just fall into them, but it’s his mouth that he finds himself searching for.

His entire body burns when their lips meet, a little rough from his haste, but even more enticing for it. He thinks he’ll melt when he feels Sasuke relax around him—he’s _certain_ he’ll incinerate when he feels Sasuke lick into his mouth.

Naruto can’t control the groan that rises in his throat, and he doesn’t really care, except when he realizes that Sasuke is making a similar noise, nimble fingers sliding into his hair.

He can’t get enough.

In a moment of clarity, he wonders if he ever will, but the semblance of sanity disappears when Sasuke nips at his bottom lip and immediately licks away the small hurt. What Naruto would give to have that talented tongue on other parts of his body, just the thought of it makes him moan.

“This really is the best dream I’ve ever had,” Naruto whispers into the space between them as they both rush to catch their breaths, drowning in midnight eyes he can’t stop staring into.

“I— _what?”_

Sasuke’s voice is rough and husky. Naruto can’t remember loving a voice so much before.

“You think this is a _dream?”_ Sasuke hisses at him, the fingers that were twined around his hair clenching as he yanks Naruto’s head up from where he had dipped down to nip at Sasuke’s jaw.

The confusion in those dark eyes clears some of the fog from his mind, and uncertainty sweeps through him so quickly it leaves him almost as breathless as their kiss had.

“Wait…this _isn’t_ a dream?”

_Shit._

He begins to understand Sasuke’s use of the word.

“Of course this isn’t a dream, you absolute moron!”

Ah, there’s that asshole streak. Naruto was beginning to wonder just how many liberties this dream had taken. Wait—

“What the _fuck!_ How can this _not_ be a dream!? I mean, I was led here by fucking _moonlight,_ and you’re so—” he can feel his face reddening. He hopes the aforementioned moonlight hides some of it. “And _this!”_ He waves the hand marked by a circle in front of Sasuke’s face, “What the fuck is this thing!? If this isn’t a dream, what the hell is it!?”

The panic that surges through him is deafening, drowning out the quiet hum of power that had been vibrating between them since his arrival. If this isn’t a dream, then he just made out with some guy he barely knows under a full moon in the middle of the woods—this _has_ to be a dream! This is _quite literally_ what dreams are made of!

Or… _nightmares._

Naruto shudders at the thought.

Sasuke rolls his eyes and groans in contempt—Naruto is reminded of the similar noise he’d made while his tongue was down his throat. He shuts down the comparison before it fucks with his head any more than it already has.

“Why are you rolling your eyes like this is somehow my fault!?” Naruto is convinced that if he stops screeching, he’ll actually have to face what just happened and he’s quite certain his mind will melt from embarrassment and…disappointment. He shuts down that train of thought before it can run rampant through this psyche—the damage would be detrimental.

“How did you know where to find me?”

Sasuke glares at his left palm and Naruto belatedly realizes that there is a mark there—a perfect crescent moon.

He stares at his right hand and the circle on it.

Then back at Sasuke’s moon.

Then back to the circle.

_Oh it’s a sun…_

_Fuck._ Because _shit_ just doesn’t cut it anymore.

“What the _fuck_ are these!?”

His throat actually hurts from screeching so loudly, and the way Sasuke scrunches his nose at the noise is so stupidly adorable that Naruto wants to impale himself on the spot.

The word _impale_ does horrible things to his already out-of-control thoughts.

“Stop squawking and calm down.”

How the fuck Sasuke looks so impassive about this entire situation both baffles and annoys the ever-loving-shit out of him. He’d known the witch was a jerk from their encounter at the apothecary but dealing with him over an extended period of time was heating up his blood—in more ways than one, but Naruto resolutely refused to acknowledge the non-irritated way.

“How am I supposed to calm down!? How are _you_ calm about _any of this!?”_

“Because screaming will give us nothing but a headache!” Sasuke snaps; it just makes Naruto want to scream more.

“Well what the fuck do we do now!? I just made out with some asshole witch I’ve spoken to _once_ in my entire life _._ Oh and let’s not forget the _insane marks on our hands!”_

“How am I supposed to think of what to do next if you _won’t shut the fuck up!?”_

He’s five seconds away from decking Sasuke when he realizes that his palm is tingling again; he almost missed it since his fist was clenched so tightly that blood had stopped circulating to his fingers.

With an audible cackle, the world…darkens—or rather, a cloud passes over the moon and the soft haze that had been surrounding the small meadow evaporates like mist.

The mark on his palm is gone and the sheer amount of disappointment he feels at the realization almost knocks him off his feet.

“It’s not gone—just hidden.” Sasuke mutters, though his voice is almost reassuring _,_ as if he understands how disappointed Naruto is feeling. When he looks up, he sees that Sasuke is staring at his own palm—that he’d actually been muttering to himself.

“Well…what now?” He rubs his palm with his other hand, softening the weight on his chest. He _can’t_ be this upset over the mark he’d been screeching about disappearing—what the actual fuck is wrong with him!?

“I need to figure out what these marks mean and why they’ve appeared on both of us.” Sasuke turns to leave and Naruto’s heart clenches at the sight.

“Wait! Can’t we figure this out together? It kind of involves us both, ya know!”

He doesn’t want to let him go.

He doesn’t want to admit he _can’t_ let him go.

His heart and head both hurt at that.

The glance Sasuke sends over his shoulder is scathing but Naruto sees a flash of _something_ in those dark depths—like the witch is just as confused as he is and doing his best to hide it.

“Can I at least buy you some coffee? And know your last name? Mine is Uzumaki, Uzumaki Naruto.”

“I don’t want coffee…but I will take a whiskey on the rocks.”

The grin that bisects Naruto’s face makes Sasuke snort and roll his eyes again, but Naruto catches the tiny quirk of his lips—the same smirk that had enthralled him from the very first moment he’d laid eyes on the witch.

He follows Sasuke through the woods, the clouds moving so that moonlight once again lightens their path.

Sasuke’s footsteps are so soft; he doesn’t rustle a single leaf as they walk, close enough to be in one another’s space, but not enough to touch. He wants to inch closer and his fingers itch to take Sasuke’s hand. It feels like he’s going senile, but he can’t find it in himself to squash down the urge.

“Uchiha.”

“Huh?”

Sasuke huffs the tiniest laugh, the most condescending sound Naruto has ever heard in his life. He kind of hates how much he loves it.

“My last name. It’s Uchiha.”

“Uchiha Sasuke…that’s—” Pretty. He stops himself before the word slips from his mouth. “cool.”

Sasuke quirks an eyebrow at him, a gesture Naruto is becoming more and more familiar with by the moment.

“So…any ideas what these marks are about?”

“None. But I will figure it out.”

Damn, he’s sexy when he’s determined.

“ _We_ will figure it out. You might be some high and mighty witch, but I’m a pretty talented sage, ya know.”

Sasuke snorts at that, “‘High and mighty’? Seriously? Just don’t slow me down, _usuratonkachi.”_

“ _Oi, teme!_ Who do you think you’re calling a—man you really are such a jerk.”

“Whatever. Just hurry up. Casting that spell was exhausting.”

“Wait what spell?”

Sasuke completely ignores him as they exit the woods and Naruto has to stop his jaw from dropping at the cottage that appears before them.

“Is this your—hey! Wait for me, _teme!”_

Sasuke is already taking off his overcoat and pointed hat by the time Naruto crosses the threshold of his entryway, his silky hair ruffled.

“What do you want to drink?”

Naruto rushes to take off his shoes, the laces fighting him in his haste.

“Uh, just water is fine. Or—actually do you have some orange juice or something? All that nature energy is fading. I’ll be starving here soon…”

“Is that why those orange marks on your eyes are fading?”

Naruto isn’t surprised by Sasuke’s inquisitiveness—the fact that he finds it stupidly cute is a bit annoying though.

“Yep! I was uh—I was kinda struggling to enter sage mode earlier, so I didn’t absorb a whole lot of energy, which is why it’s faded so fast.”

“Hmm. Well, sit down. The books on the table will be a good place to start.”

The books on the table are so big that just looking at them makes Naruto’s soul leave his body.

“St-start? I’m uh…I’m more of a—it’s gonna take me fifty years to read something that long!” His fight or flight instincts kick in and he’s itching to jump out the nearest window. The last time he’d been forced to sit and read for an extended period of time, his instructor had gotten so frustrated with him that he’d retired from teaching altogether.

“Well how else do you expect to figure out what this thing is without researching?” Sasuke all but shoves a glass of orange juice into his face and takes the seat across from him.

“Can’t we just—I don’t know—talk about it? I’ve never felt that kind of energy before, but if I focused, I could probably track down the source.”

“You can sense variations in energy?”

“Of course, that’s kinda what sages are all about, ya know. Nature energy is different from the energy generated by people. Like,” He pauses and bites his lip, trying to think of a way to explain it, “like I’d never mistake a witch’s spell for nature—even if the witch casts a spell to harness lightning, the energy has been sort of…well _tainted_ is harsh but like—”

“Like the energy has been channeled through a conduit. It leaves a mark unique to the caster.”

“Yeah! I think…”

“You never answered my question earlier—how did you know where to find me?”

“I uh—well there was this…this _pull._ Like…” Putting the force he felt towards Sasuke into words is vastly beyond the scope of his abilities—he can barely wrap his own head around it, let alone explain it to someone else.

“Did it feel like nature energy or like a witch’s spell?”

“Nature. It didn’t feel unnatural in the least.” Quit the opposite, really.

“Hn.” Sasuke flips the giant book open, quickly rifling through the pages crammed with letters Naruto doesn’t even recognize until he finds what he’s looking for, lips pursed as his finger glides across the page.

The night passes quietly, their conversation never-ending, the rapid-fire back and forth questions and answers growing faster the more they talk. Their voices are at times excited, sometimes frustrated; their interactions sometimes heated, sometimes sweet. Their words and actions fit together so perfectly that by the time dawn is whispering through the windows, Naruto can hardly imagine that they’d been strangers only a night before.

“Oh, Sasuke what about this one?” His voice is a little rough from lack of sleep as he points to a symbol in one of the dozens of books scattered around the table.

Silence answers him.

“Sasuke?” He looks up and the breath is knocked from his lungs.

Dawnlight plays across Sasuke’s cheek, prompted up by his hand; it twines into his eyelashes, so incredibly long and thick, stark against his pale skin.

He’s asleep, features softened by slumber. It makes Naruto sigh and wish he knew how to draw—but the image is so pretty that he’s sure he’d never be able to do the real thing justice.

He quietly takes off his outer robe and drapes it across Sasuke’s shoulders, stifling a yawn as he moves back to his own chair and rests his cheek on the table, the wood soft and inviting.

His lips twitch at the giddy idea of waking up and seeing Sasuke again. For all that the witch is a jerk, Naruto finds himself excited to talk to him again, even if it is just exchanging insults.

As he drifts off to sleep, part of him hopes they’ll never quite figure out what the marks mean—so that they’ll have an excuse to work together forever.

A silly hope—but hey, he’s still pretty sure he’s dreaming, so he might as well indulge.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! I love comments, so leave me one below!
> 
> Feel free to come and chat with me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Ana_rchyAngel) or [Tumblr](https://anyrchyangel.tumblr.com) :3
> 
> Please go check out Cricket's amazing works at:  
> [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/sketchingly/)  
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/riverssan)


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